When I walked in my bedroom, I saw something on my bed. As I got closer, I saw a small locket sitting there. It had a small wolf and dog on it. The animals were both very small, but the chain was long. I held it out on my hand and examined it closer. There was an inscription on the wolf. Sorry about this morning, Remus, it said. I smiled and put it on. I turned the light off and got under the covers of my bed.

While I laid there, I thought about the night I just had. I took something from under my pillow. It was a piece of parchment. I didn’t need to read it then and there so I put it in my trunk. I sat up on my bed and looked at my toe. It was pretty swollen.

“Lumos,” I whispered.

I also saw my hand, which wasn’t bleeding anymore. The bandage was covered in dried blood. I sighed.

“Nox.”

I lay there, waiting to go to sleep. I pretended to sleep when Harry had come in multiple times. He usually came in but then turned as soon as he saw me in bed. I finally had fallen asleep when I heard the door shut for the last time. When I had woken up, I noticed that the sun hadn’t come up yet. I stretched my arms in the air, hearing the bones cracking. I flinched as Harry mumbled in his sleep. He hadn’t changed. I quickly changed into my robes and quietly went down to the common room.

Someone tapped on my shoulder and it was Ron. His usual messy hair was even scruffier. He noticed the sad look in my eyes. He sat next to me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Reminiscing about the past isn’t exactly how I remembered it to be.”

“Yeah, it sucks sometimes. So how are you and Harry? You guys didn’t make it back until late last night.”

I smiled to myself, not looking at Ron. I laughed at how much I told Harry about Fred and I. I looked back at Ron who was serious.

“I told him about your brother and I, almost everything. I had so much fun last night.”

“Is your hand okay? Hermione was so sick just thinking about it.” He motioned to my hand. I raised my hand for him to see and held my hand by the palm.

“Okay, Ron. That really hurts my hand,” I said as I sucked in air through my teeth.

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s okay. Oh! I’m so sorry. Why are you up? It’s like four in the morning.”

“I heard something downstairs and I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“You? What was the real reason?”

“Hermione…” he started.

“Don’t even finish that sentence, I understand completely, Ronald.”

Ron laughed and stared in the fire. Things had gotten quiet quickly. I hugged Ron and sighed. He smiled lightly and hugged me back.

“It’s going to be okay, Victoria.”

“I don’t know if that’s true this time,” I whispered in his ear.

“Then just don’t think about it.”

“It’s not something I can ignore, Ron.”

Before we could say any more, someone walking down the staircase interrupted us. I walked out of the common room before the figure was revealed. The shadow had gotten bigger and the voices had gotten softer. I had run to the Astronomy Tower and watched the sun come up. I sat down and inhaled deeply. I watched the lake drift toward the sun’s path. I smiled slowly as I saw the birds flying. I stood and put my hands on the cold steel rails. It made me feel safe, to be so close to the edge, ironically. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked slightly to not see anything. It was someone from the dead. I never really found out who it was but I could always dream.

“Victoria?” A voice from the shadows whispered.

I gasped, falling over the ledge. It felt longer than it looked. Being there, falling, down to the ground. Then, a broom swooped from under me. I gripped the broom’s handle and took in deep breaths. I flew back up to the tower and quickly got off the broom. It reminded of when Fred encouraged me to fly for the first time with him.

“I remember that day,” the voice came back.

I snapped my head from where the voice came. I clutched my robes when I saw Ron there. I licked my lips before I spoke.

“What?”

“I remember when Fred made you go on a broom for the first time with him. It definitely was a sight to see. You said that you remembered too.”

“Did I?”

He nodded with easement. He walked over to me and I gave him the broomstick. I was deathly scared of flying. Ron came closer to the edge, toward me. His red hair was identical to Fred’s. It made me smile, but that smile quickly faded away.

“It was Harry, who came downstairs when you scurried away.”

“I had a feeling that it was him. I just didn’t want to risk it. Look, about what we were talking about…”

“Ingrid, it’s fine. It will all be fine. I know, you, out of all people will be fine. You know how it’s all going to go down already. So, it’s not going to be any different this time around.”

“You haven’t called me that for such a long time. You know, Ron, I really miss it.” I looked away. “But this is the first time it’s going to happen when I know that Harry knows who I am. It’s different than last time.”

Ingrid was my middle name. Since Ron didn’t like calling me “Malfoy”, he decided not to call me by my first name, but by my middle name. Ron had this thing for calling me by something else than anyone did. And he succeeded.

“Hey, you’ve done this before. But if you really don’t want Harry to know, I’ll keep him busy those days.”

I turned to him and embraced him tightly. “Thank you,” I whispered. He hugged me back, making me feel happier. I kissed him on the cheek and ran downstairs to the Great Hall. No one was there, but Draco. He was sitting all alone at the Slytherin table, collecting his thoughts. When I had walked in, he didn’t look up at me until I was halfway down the room. He had a slight smile on his face of worry. I kept quiet until I was closer to him. I sat across from him and leveled my eyes to meet his.

“Draco? Are you okay?” my voice serious. I looked at him and then he just poured out.

“You don’t know the pressure I’m in, Tori. You don’t…” His voice faded throughout the whole time he talked.

I let him speak because I didn’t know all that much on what was going on with Draco. He had become a Death Eater and I knew it. I couldn’t exactly ask Voldemort to lift the burden off of my brother’s shoulders. I couldn’t. I looked into his eyes that were full of melancholy and dread. I watched him as he basically unraveled himself with the task that Voldemort had instructed him to do. I did not pass judgment because I knew that he didn’t have a choice. I put my hand on top of his and he clutched it as if it would erase all of his problems. I wish that it had. My body, which was leaning across the table, was still from his silence. I had tears in my eyes that I was fighting back. I sighed and kissed Draco’s hands. It was a moment of weakness that my brother had shown me. It was killing my inside that my brother could be so miserable and so tightly bound.

“Draco, I’ll go to him, if you want me to. I will do it…for you.” I let the words slip out of my mouth, but it wasn’t like I didn’t want to say them. He was my brother and I had to help him.

He scoffed lightly and shook his head. His eyes left mine and onto the table. When he led his eyes onto mine again, he leaned closer to me.

“I could never ask you to do that.”

He let go of my hand and left me there…without another word. My face, shocked, stared as he left. My mouth hung open. I didn’t chase after him because if I did, we would both get hurt. I heard the last of his heels hitting the floors as he exited the Great Hall. I gasped as I cried to myself. My brother was being tortured and I couldn’t do anything about it. I slammed my fists on the tables many times, causing them to turn red. I banged my head and it stayed there as my tears got onto the wood. I picked my head up and wiped my tears off with my sleeve. I shuddered and jumped as I heard a creak at the door. No one was there.

“Get a grip, Victoria,” a voice rang out throughout the Great Hall.

I snapped my neck around the room, knowing that no one was there to begin with. I had heard the voice before, but it wasn’t a spirit. It wasn’t anything. I once thought it was a figment of my imagination combined with the wisdom of my conscience. But then all I could hear was the sound of my breath, gasping. I was alone. I blinked rapidly and then flinched when somebody had come into the Great Hall.

“Victoria?” Hermione shouted across the empty hall.

A sigh of relief escaped my mouth. I motioned her over to me. I stood to greet her but then fell to the ground. I heard my head crack as it hit the hard ground. My vision blurred and I started shaking. I started coughing uncontrollably and felt a shock in my stomach. As I cried out in pain, Hermione ran over to me. A searing white light was appearing in the corners of my eyes. The pain in my stomach came back, causing me to scream louder. Hermione was muttering something, giving me potions, but nothing was working. Students started coming in, attracted to the noise. I heard their murmuring and screamed louder, hoping they’d leave, but it caused more to come.

“I just…want it to stop. Make it…stop, Hermione. Please,” I said in between gasps of pain. I took her hand with the strength I had. I couldn’t breathe. She had poured another potion down my throat, causing me to vomit it back up.

“Move out of my way,” I heard a voice screaming through the crowd. It was Draco’s voice. I tried to open my eyes for at least a second.

He kneeled down as soon as he saw me. Hermione backed away to avoid an argument between the two. I reached out for his hand and he soon took it. I grasped it as soon as another shock of torment went through me. I shuddered with terror as I saw my brother’s face got even more worried than before.

“I’m…sorry. I didn’t want…this to happen. I don’t…know…what’s going on. Draco, I need…you to go get someone…to help me. I’m…sorry, Draco.”

“No, I’m not leaving you,” he whispered. “Do you think that this is because…?”

“NO! It’s…too early. It’s…not…” I interrupted him. I let out an ear-piercing scream as pain was rushing through my veins. Draco’s face made me so miserable. I caused him so much pain and now that would kill him, if I didn’t die first. After about everybody from Hogwarts come to hear me shriek, I fainted from all of the screaming and loss of blood to my brain.

A/N-What’d you think? Dramatic and shocking, eh? That’s what I wanted it to be. Hope you guys liked it. Please Review so I can please you guys some more!